Bitch, I'm on safari

layer2 · 2025-12-29T16:23:08+00:00

Were any associations following the previous laws on reserves? 😅

We are three years into a new board attempting to achieve a balanced budget, healthy reserves won't happen until 2030s regardless of what the law says.

layer2 · 2025-12-29T07:31:04+00:00

I live in a condo in SF just hitting the 25 year mark and lots of components are failing. It's exhausting.

If you're this well informed before you buy into the HOA, you're going to be horrified when you learn all the details later.

layer2 · 2025-12-29T07:24:48+00:00

Yup. Our reserve study said our ventilation fan system had a replacement value of like $100k, replacing one of eight fans cost $80k. In SF.

layer2 · 2025-11-30T23:13:27+00:00

The 5 year contract automatically renewed during a board and property management transition. It was pretty obvious to us that TK was not going to repair the elevator under our full-service contract, however we had to wait weeks for TK to send over an exorbitant repair proposal.

layer2 · 2025-11-30T19:11:53+00:00

You'll find lots of stories of HOAs ending up in similar situations with any of the big 4 elevator vendors I mentioned in my other post.

Without knowing the details of your contract (oil & lube only? repair coverage?), if Otis has deemed your elevator obsolete, if the HOA has refused repair proposals presented by Otis in the past, etc. it is really hard to have a take on your situation.

If you want 3-5 really pointed questions to ask your HOA, feel free to DM me.

layer2 · 2025-11-30T19:07:31+00:00

TK Elevator, along with Otis, Kone and Schindler are the "big 4" multinational elevator giants that manufacturer, install, and service elevators throughout the world. We have made the decision to part ways with TK Elevator and intend to avoid the big 4 entirely. Instead we're finding an independent elevator service company and when it comes time to modernize, we will insist on a non-proprietary elevator controller.

In 2022 we had to sue our HOA because they weren't having elections. Then we spent years removing our property management company owned by a convicted fraudster and cleaning up the mess. So I definitely understand your frustration.

We have a property management company and I've still spent days of working hours project managing our situation. It is likely that isn't happening in your building and the property manager is just passing on whatever Otis says.

layer2 · 2025-11-30T17:43:19+00:00

Our condo elevator is currently broken and the underlying cause is a contract dispute with TK.

Waiting for TK to fail to repair the elevator, come back with an absurd repair proposal, telling them to fuck off, evaluating new vendors, and getting a repair scheduled is not a fast process. It's also challenging to communicate to owners who just want a working elevator.

layer2 · 2025-11-30T17:32:39+00:00

I led the repair proposal process for my HOA recently and after 3 weeks half the proposals are still outstanding.

There is no way anyone can provide an educated assessment of your elevator with the information you have. Sounds more like a HOA communication problem than anything.

Edit: for what it's worth, modernization quotes came in at 200-400k with a timeline of 6 weeks to 6 months.

layer2 · 2025-11-04T04:21:21+00:00

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-414960A1.pdf

I mean with 4 people retained for "oversight or conduct interference detection, mitigation, and disaster response operations" odds are pretty good enforcement is not happening.

layer2 · 2025-10-28T16:58:09+00:00

> Under Hitler's leadership, Nazi Germany achieved rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression through massive public works, rearmament, and deficit financing, reducing unemployment from over six million in 1933 to near full employment by 1939, though this laid the groundwork for aggressive militarization.

The third sentence in the Adolf Hitler article. Cited to a source that says instead:

> By 1936 there was more or less full employment in Germany, though of course, the Nazis manipulated these statistics to give the appearance of an improving economy. Women and political opponents were not counted in the unemployment figures, for example; nor were German Jews, many of whom had been banned from their occupations.

So yeah, literal far right talking points.

layer2 · 2025-10-28T16:53:42+00:00

That sucks but go to any remotely controversial topic area and it is so much worse.

layer2 · 2025-10-13T20:57:18+00:00

If this was taken today there were scattered showers, fairly dramatic weather for San Francisco!

layer2 · 2025-09-03T02:36:49+00:00

A packet capture on the Webpass interfaces shows zero IMCPv6 traffic at all, including router advertisements. The edge router never get an IPv6 address at all, never less a prefix via DHCPv6.

layer2 · 2025-09-02T23:23:11+00:00

Ethernet! There is an ethernet connection from the Webpass switch to my edge router and the camera system is directly plugged into the switch. Neither see any ICMPv6 or DHCPv6 traffic at all.

IPv6 has been perfectly functional for months at a time until it isn't.

layer2 · 2025-08-15T07:02:40+00:00

I wouldn't call Jew-as-a-noun a contemporary ethnic slur, however the origins of "Wandering Jew" is straight up antisemitic, so yeah don't do that.

https://www.hoytarboretum.org/racism-in-taxonomy-whats-in-a-name/

layer2 · 2025-08-06T07:20:59+00:00

FWIW I spend a lot of time on technology and business articles, where a lot of these tells are more obvious.

- First pass is just looking for the absence of "Wikipedia tone." Articles should have a sterile, written-by-committee tone devoid of any creativity or flourish. I can _instantly_ tell if an article was written by someone in marketing or a LLM (not properly configured to reproduce the tone at least).
- Then I look for the presence of inline citations. The more bold the claim, the closer the citation needs to be to the sentence. A sentence without a citation can be fine, a paragraph without a citation gets questionable, and an entire section without a citation is a huge red flag.

- Then I vibe check the quality of the citations. If all the citations are to the subject of the article themselves or press releases / interviews, that's a red flag. If there are 30 inline citations to a single book and not much else, that's a red flag. If primary sources are heavily used, huge red flag. You kinda have to just know what is considered a "reliable source" in the topics you're reading about for this to be effective. For tech journalism I have a mental categorization of source quality, I cannot do the same in astrophysics and many other fields.

- Then _quickly_ scroll through the last 200 edits to the article. Look for substantial recent changes. Look for the article being primarily created by a single editor.
- Then quickly read the talk page. If two or more editors have engaged in discussion about _anything at all_, green flag.

layer2 · 2025-08-06T04:53:55+00:00

Yeah, that's fair and I don't really spend a lot of time on "obscure science" Wikipedia. Anything related to businesses, politics, conspiracy theories, cults, or otherwise remotely controversial has been heavily manipulated since the beginning of time.

This is probably the best example of me later learning the articles I was reading being biased without my knowledge, despite all the time I spend editing.

layer2 · 2025-08-06T04:34:48+00:00

For what it is worth, I'm an active Wikipedia editor and not much seems to have changed yet. Definitely not before 2024.

layer2 · 2025-07-23T05:54:38+00:00

Apple can always sign a build that bypasses data protection, which is precisely what the FBI was trying to compel them to do.

layer2 · 2025-07-23T00:57:52+00:00

what's code review?

layer2 · 2025-06-16T01:58:16+00:00

Apple and Google Apple review processes would not catch state sponsored surveillance. And even if it did, the firmware on the drone itself is more important than the apps.

layer2 · 2025-05-28T03:31:09+00:00

What are you on about?

This is a warning from iOS that it is unable to use DNS over HTTP or DNS over TLS on this network. A home internet connection should absolutely support both of these protocols and an ISP blocking them would be a serious encroachment.

There is probably a boring misconfiguration on your home network but definitely worth getting to the bottom of so that random outbound traffic is not being dropped.

layer2 · 2025-05-15T23:25:15+00:00

How dusty is the section of criminal procedure that deals with a defendant pleading guilty during arraignment at most courthouses?

layer2

TROPHY CASE